While I wish there were more candid photographs of the band in it (come on, give a '90s indie rock fetishist something to stare at!), I'm glad to have a copy of Perfect Sound Forever, the new Pavement bio. While the culture-oriented opinions in the book are bit too indie-good/mainstream-bad for my pop-diluted tastes, the chapters dealing with Pavement's origins were full of interesting anecdotes and astonishing revelations. Seeing the way hype built up around the band as they rapidly evolved from a piss-take noise-pop duo to The Greatest Rock Band You've Never Heard is fascinating, especially since most of the articles I've read about the band were written circa Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. It's also interesting to read a detailed description of the band's dissolution, since the press releases offered at the time were conflicting and vague. Author Rob Jovanovic offers enough quotes from the band to offset his across-the-sea take on U.S. pop culture (yeah, ok, that's a real bugaboo of mine), plus there's lots of photocopies of old reviews to ponder. Now where's that Guided By Voices bio? Or how about The Oral History Of Steve Albini?